Tailings Dam Deposition (Cyclones)
Tailings Dam Deposition (Cyclones)
(OP)
I am busy with a research project to determine why our cyclones are supplying the wrong split! Our design is based on 16% underflow but we are only getting 11.8%. Can anybody with more experience help with some options as to why this could happen, so that i could look into with more depth and try to fix this problem?
Another question, if they asked me to do a grading on the slurry, what would this mean? And what results would the grading give me?
Another question, if they asked me to do a grading on the slurry, what would this mean? And what results would the grading give me?





RE: Tailings Dam Deposition (Cyclones)
RE: Tailings Dam Deposition (Cyclones)
RE: Tailings Dam Deposition (Cyclones)
Giving the sample to the lab ans asking for the gradation should get you the answer you want.
RE: Tailings Dam Deposition (Cyclones)
Your cyclone will have a D50 cut size- when operating at design this will be the size of particles where 50% report to the overflow and 50% report to the underflow. Lower underflow densities can be caused by your material being finer than the cyclone was designed for (i.e. business as usual).
If you're going to size the material- get a representative sample of the overflow and underflow so that you can calculate the cut size for your cyclone and plot a tromp curve.
You can increase your underflow density by
Increasing your cyclone operating pressure (more flow per cyclone)
Decreasing your spigot size (that's the opening at the bottom)
Increasing the slurry density feeding the cyclone
Decreasing your cyclone diameter
Note cyclone spigots are one of the highest wear items and it's not uncommon for the outlet/spigot size to increase as they wear.
What happens to the cyclone overflow from this system? Changes made to the cyclone underflow will impact on the overflow.
As a chem eng/metallurgist the first part of any answer I give starts with "It Depends"